Clara Stancik

Every day the boys played two-hand-touch during recess, meaning that to get someone out, all you had to do was tag them with two hands. Typically, I would sit next to my favorite recess teacher, Mrs. C, and watch. I distinctly remember the cool breeze passing my face as I longed to join in. “Go, you should play,” Mrs. C said with a smile even though I had never actually mentioned playing. Sure, I did make small comments on their sloppy plays or passes, but I had never really shown any interest in joining in, or at least not at school. I kept it to myself as I did with many other thoughts.

Playing with other kids instead of sitting quietly next to a teacher, seemed like a truly simple fix to my depressing recesses. It just did not seem like a simple task to me at the time. There was no problem with me playing football, besides the fact that I would be the only girl. I expected to have some judgy girls talk about it later or something, but I would not mind. Most girls effortlessly accepted the boys’ rude behavior toward girls, but I did not. Some of the boys did not believe that girls could even be good at sports. In fact, multiple times I had told on them and gotten them in deep trouble for saying similar things to my face. For this reason, they did not enjoy my company very much. Despite all of this, I got up and jogged into the game.

It was a turnover so I had a great opportunity to jump in. “Can I join this team Jacob,” I asked, trying to hold back my eager smile. “Uhh- sure,” he said, acting as though I had asked him to leap across the moon. I talked to Jacob because I had always thought of him as one of the more accepting boys, and I was glad he had shown some kindness. Matt hiked the ball to Josh, the quarterback. I ran forward,

Every day the boys played two-hand-touch during recess, meaning that to get someone out, all you had to do was tag them with two hands. Typically, I would sit next to my favorite recess teacher, Mrs. C, and watch. I distinctly remember the cool breeze passing my face as I longed to join in. “Go, you should play,” Mrs. C said with a smile even though I had never actually mentioned playing. Sure, I did make small comments on their sloppy plays or passes, but I had never really shown any interest in joining in, or at least not at school. I kept it to myself as I did with many other thoughts.

Playing with other kids instead of sitting quietly next to a teacher, seemed like a truly simple fix to my depressing recesses. It just did not seem like a simple task to me at the time. There was no problem with me playing football, besides the fact that I would be the only girl. I expected to have some judgy girls talk about it later or something, but I would not mind. Most girls effortlessly accepted the boys’ rude behavior toward girls, but I did not. Some of the boys did not believe that girls could even be good at sports. In fact, multiple times I had told on them and gotten them in deep trouble for saying similar things to my face. For this reason, they did not enjoy my company very much. Despite all of this, I got up and jogged into the game.

It was a turnover so I had a great opportunity to jump in. “Can I join this team Jacob,” I asked, trying to hold back my eager smile. “Uhh- sure,” he said, acting as though I had asked him to leap across the moon. I talked to Jacob because I had always thought of him as one of the more accepting boys, and I was glad he had shown some kindness. Matt hiked the ball to Josh, the quarterback. I ran forward, easily speeding past many others. I was wide open. “Josh,” I called, “Over here I’m open!!” He frowned at me and passed the ball to his friend, Ben, who was being defended by another kid. The ball was almost intercepted. I was right here, I had thought slightly frustrated.

Again the ball was hiked and I was wide open directly in front of the made-up endzone. “Don’t pass it to her,” shouted Jack. “Yeah she is just a girl she will fumble it!” shouted another person I could not see. Tears swelled in my eyes as more people joined in the riot. It felt a lot worse than most pains I had endured previously. After the play was over I got ready yet again. Even though I was upset I still shot forward and ran. This time Jack was covering me. I was shuffling away when he yelled at me, “HEY! You should not be on the blacktop playing football! This sport is only meant for boys! You don’t belong here,” with that he shoved me to the ground furiously. I could see the anger in his eyes. I did not understand. What had I done to make him so upset? The recess teacher blew the whistle and gave him a lecture. I walked over and watched the rest of the game from under the shade of a tree. https://bit.ly/lostlz

It was only then in 5th grade that I realized, yes women have won the right to vote and won so many other rights, but injustices still exist. Violence has never been the solution. It never will be. Though, there is a part of me that wishes I had beaten Jack straight to the ground. I know I did what was right when the next day during recess, I walked outside with my head held high and jogged back onto the blacktop.